Léon Subercaze’s etching, “The Doll”, c1848, after Adriaen van Ostade

Léon Subercaze (fl. 1848–1849)

“The Doll”, c1848, after Adriaen van Ostade’s (1610–1685) etching in the same direction, “Child Reaching for a Doll” (aka “La Poupée Desirée”; “La Poupée Demandée”), possibly executed for Léon  “series of prints for a book on Van Ostade’s art” (see Alison McQueen’s 2003, “The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France” [Amsterdam University Press], p. 161 [n. 320])—a series that were once attributed to Jacque.

Etching on wove paper trimmed close to the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 10.4 x 9.3 cm; (image borderline) 10 x 8.7 cm.

Inscribed in plate within the image borderline: (lower right corner) “Av[ligature]. O. 1673”.

Numbered in plate below the image borderline: (partially trimmed at left) “11”.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “Family scene outside a rustic house, with on the left a woman sitting with her child on her lap and showing him a doll while her husband looks on; after Ostade Etching” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1889-0608-287).

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed early impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, trimmed close to the image borderline and laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling Subercaze’s small etching after Van Ostade’s etching from a series of prints that have caused many headaches for museum curators in the past—headaches leading to many of Charles Jacque’s reproductive prints of old master prints having to be reattributed to the hand of Léon Subercaze—for AU$267 in total (currently US$191.52/EUR168.27/GBP141.30 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this fascinating etching designed to showcase Van Ostade’s etchings to a fresh and newly appreciative audience in 19th century France leading to the Etching Revival movement later in the century, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.